Windows Phone 7 Xbox Live Games And Capabilities Shown Off

We’ve often said that Windows Phone 7 may live or die based on how it leverages Microsoft’s immense stature in gaming. A few games have been shown off here and there, but they’ve just blown the lid off their whole Xbox Live interface and Launch lineup. Inexplicably, they called Engadget to check it out instead of me, and so they’ve got some hands-on video over there.

Some key points:

They’ll be launching with about 60 titles, including some big names like Halo, Crackdown, and Splinter Cell.

Full support for Avatars, including phone-specific games and apps using them as props

No live multiplayer at launch, only turn-based (they seemed to think this would change)